After a long decision process I just found out that my photo book ‚Ani. between pride and decay‘ has been chosen to be on display at the Athens Photo Festival this year. Quite an honour given the (although long) list of fellow photographers who are displayed as well.

On the first day I met Ersin he had to go to get his russian Lada checked at a repair shop outside of Kars. Since I didn‘t have much else to do I joined him. The guys at the workshop didn‘t mind me taking photos. In fact, they even asked to get their pictures taken. It was obviously nothing compared to the car dealers in Europe. While the first thing they do is plug your car into a computer to check for errors in Turkey they still just use pure manpower to fix any problem. And problems could be small like in Ersin’s case or bigger like the crashed car outside that was being rebuilt out of 5 different cars. Before he started the mechanic lit up his cigarette with the blow-torch that he used for welding.

brotlose Kunst refers to art not being able to feed the artist … I shot the photo at the C.A.R. (contemporary Art Ruhr) fair in Essen a few weeks ago. The fair was all about selling artworks and I would say most of the pieces were more decorative than anything else, so perfectly made for the sense to sell it for a doctor or a lawyers office, in that sense I suppose it is nourishing the artist — at least to some degree … I wasn‘t too excited about the fair but I like the photo .

Must be one of the best showers I‘ve seen so far. The 70’s colors and the striped carpet really added up to a wonderful „image“ in this tiny hotel room in Essen. Somehow gives it a luxurious touch since this type of „free-standing“ shower is usually found in loft appartments …

It’s not quite the usual „travel documentary“ about India but it definitely makes me want to go there and see those fearless men … and when I‘m there already just travel a bit more and have some great indian food

Just recently Milky Chance was recommended to me and I really do like his music. He is just 20 years old and apparently started his career in his children’s room (not the garage this time like many before him) in Kassel. Being such a young artist he is obviously familiar with technical possibilities of the internet and therefore became famous by uploading his songs onto youtube. I’m fairly curious what will follow …

Milky Chance – Running

Milky Chance – Flashed Junk Mind

Milky Chance – Loveland (Berlin Sessions)

The above video is part of the Berlin Sessions, a music video format similar to the French La Blogothèque (featuring bands like Beirut, Sigur Ros, Phoenix etc.) with less famous artists but definitely worth checking out.